Bob Lind is a singer/songwriter who emerged from the American Folk movement in the 60s with the iconic Top Five hit "Elusive Butterfly". Bob charted a few more times in the 60s but couldn't crack the Top 40 again, although over 200 artists have covered his songs from then to now. For a time, Bob dropped out of the music world entirely, continuing to write...novels, an award winning play, a screenplay, and a satirical news column, but he began playing music again around 2004. In October, Bob released his first all new album in some 40 years, "Finding You Again", which some have hailed as his best work ever.

Back around 2005, Bob wrote and recorded "A New Year's Carol", a song that strips away the hypocrisy of the holiday season and finds, at the core, good reason to be hopeful and celebrate. It's ultimately up to us, though. Bob polished the song a bit a few years later and it has long been available as a free download from his web site (scroll down a bit; it's there). I can think of no better song to close out 2012 and welcome 2013 than Bob Lind's"A New Year's Carol".

(The divShare widget above is courtesy ofForgotten Hits, anexceptional blogto rediscover the old hits and keep track of what the artists from the 50s, 60s and 70s (mostly) are doing today.)

Rhe De Ville (born Mary Frances Grabowski) is a New York based multi-media artist. A lively dance/pop number, "Happy New Year" was originally written and recorded late in 2010 and it has now become an annual "event" (or "ritual") for Rhe to update the song. The 2012/2013 Club Version was funded via Kickstarter and there are 2 different mixes available as free downloads via Soundcloud, the "single" version and the extended dance mix, and each is available in both AIFF and MP3 formats.

HB Radke is the son of Fred Radke, former frontman for the Harry James Orchestra. For the last few years, Radke has been writing a "song a week". The nice thing about doing that is that you tend to hit all the holidays. Radke's first "song a week" song from 2012 was "New Year". He swears that it started out as a Hip Hop number, but it certainly ended up as sort of a Big Band number (minus the real Big Band). Most of HB's "song-a-week" songs are available as free downloads (2011 here, 2012 here) at Bandcamp, as is this New Year's song. The Christmas songs, though, have been collected up as "The Twelve Songs Of Christmas" and that set will cost you $9.99.

Michigan Roots artist Brion Riborn recorded his non-traditional traditional holiday songs back around 2008 and 2009, releasing the songs as a series of digital singles. But those singles have not been widely available except through his web site. Now a bit more established, Brion has released a pair of these (along with "Where Shadows Lie", a song he says is a Hobbit song) as a 3-song name-your-price download at Bandcamp. Better yet, the complete set of holiday tracks is available through Noisetrade. Brion's take on the holiday season is, like Michigan, more icy cold than celebratory. For example, in "I Still Haven't Found The Silent Night", after spinning through the original carol, Brion launches into a bit of U2's"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". It's chilling, pleading and desperate. Call it a Folk mashup, whatever you call it, it's effective. And, on Brion's "Forgotten Memories", he does much the same with "Auld Lang Syne", imploring us to "celebrate and remember. But don't look back, never look back." If you need an original Americana take on "Auld Lang Syne", grab Brion's at Bandcamp. Better yet, grab all of Brion's seasonal sides via Noisetrade. You'll even find "On Valentine's Day", there, for those who like to think ahead a bit.

L.A. Indie Folk/Rock band Lord Huron has just released their cover of "Auld Lang Syne". Lord Huron incorporates a bit of electronica and what the L.A. Times calls "Wild West Romance" into their sound. They're unique and happening enough to have appeared on The Tonight Show in 2012 and their latest full-length is "Lonesome Dreams". "Auld Lang Syne" is free through Soundcloud for the moment, so pick it up.

Music's a funny thing. It either hits you or it don't, er, doesn't. Quick cut to Social Club, a Miami (Christian?) Hip Hop outfit and their new single "New Years". From the opening film-noir jazz background notes to the first line from the vocalist rapping, "I feel like all four members of Color Me Badd" and on into the soulful chorus, this one hit me. It hit me good. Although "New Years" is offered as a "sad rap", it had me smiling all the way through. Hey, what do I know? I'm just a guy with a blog. But I liked it. I liked it a lot. Catch the Social Club"New Years" train free at Bandcamp.

Time for a New Year's freebie, this one from 2001. Shirley Cason is a New York based New Age keyboard player with several albums to her credit. And this "New Year's Eve Song" is Shirley's rendition of "Auld Lang Syne". It's a sweetly done piece and well worth grabbing for free at Bandcamp, if you like New Age or Ambient or Beautiful Music.

Among Shirley's full-length albums is "Simply Christmas", released in 2000. And, for a limited time, at least, you can also pick up "Carol Of The Bells" as a free download from Bandcamp.

It's become one of our favorite holiday traditions, right up there with the Santastic series, and the 2012 Christmas album from Cigar Box Nation has finally arrived. This one's a huge mother--41 tracks in all, I think. Cigar Box Nation is an online community of musicians--professional and amateur--who prefer their music homemade and their instruments the same way. There's a long history of Cigar Box Guitar music in this country and these people keep that legacy alive. You don't need a Gibson or a Les Paul to make great music, so long as you've got an old cigar box and a couple of strings, you're golden. Of course, a lot of these cigar box instruments are a bit more elaborate than that--many electrified and what not. And the annual Christmas album features so many styles and sounds, that it's like opening the mystery present on Christmas morning, with plenty of oohs and aahs all round.

In the best of years, it takes me a long time to get through an entire Cigar Box Christmas album. But a quick hop, skip and jump through "Cigar Box Christmas 2012" reveals plenty of great music, starting with the killer opening Blues number, "Cigar Box Santa" from Mark "Fat Max" Hill. Ledfoot T provides a beautiful folk song about the famous "Christmas Truce 1914" (not quite John McCutcheon, but very fine in it's own right). And there's a rather affecting story-song about the same event, "Le Miracle De Noel" from c# merle. "Snowflakes In The Misty Village" is a sweet and lovely, nearly ambient, old world folk instrumental from SUGIMUGI. "Meansleeves" from The Anonymous Pick is an all too brief Heavy Metal riff that sounds like it came from a lost Black Sabbath session. I very much enjoyed Captain Nemoff's "Welcome To My Kitchen" (some old time country blues, that) and, though this year's set is a bit light on straight up pop, there's one wonderful pop track from Neanderpaul, "Christmas Only Comes One Day Of The Year" that, having grown up a Bubblegum Child, would make this set worthwhile to me all by its lonesome. There's some classic Lo-Fi old timey, some simple heartfelt homemade seasonal tributes, some classic blues rock that sounds like Jimi Hendrix jamming with Eric Clapton, some stuff just for fun, and no doubt some you may regard as clunkers. In short, "Cigar Box Christmas 2012" is a surprise Christmas party in a zip, and everybody's coming. Download it free at Cigar Box Nation.

I don't know if any of you can recall the first time you heard James Taylor or Dan Fogelberg or, heck, Gordon Lightfoot, but hearing Reid Jamieson for the first time brought back some of those feelings for me. Jamieson is an emerging Folk/Pop artist from Canada and his new Christmas/Winter album just sparkles from head to toe. The song selection on "Song For A Winter's Night" is inspired--including three originals, Bruce Cockburn's "The Coldest Night Of The Year", Nick Lowe's "Freezing", Tori Amos'"Winter" and the title track written by Gordon Lightfoot--and the execution is spot on perfect for any Winter's Night. The full CD is available atCD Babyand you can get the digital download there or throughiTunes. You can also listen to the full album onSoundcloud. Not only that, but three of the tracks--the three Reid Jamieson originals--are available for free download. Just punch the download arrows on the right onSoundcloudor the "download" buttons on the widget above. Once you've heard a bit of Sweet Baby Jamieson, I'm, betting you're going to want the whole set.

Every year, 'bout mid August (yeah, I'm that far behind), I checkthe web sitefor Jennie Stearns to see if maybe, possibly, hopefully (oh, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) she might be considering recording a seasonal song. But, no. No Christmas song from Jennie. Possibly never ever. Not her style, I guess. *sigh*

Radio Free Song Club is a collective of writers in search of good songs. They'll look everywhere and anywhere in search of that "one good song" because"the world is looking for a good song. Someone might get lucky."Radio Free Song then constructs a podcast when they can (perhaps monthly) featuring these new songs, plus interviews with the artists behind them. The music tends toward folk and Americana, and their approach is soft and personal.

Anywho, the Radio Free people have the artists (more often than not) perform live in their studios (with theRadio Free All Stars) and, because we're talking about a real studio, here, the sound is very professional, yet intimate. They then offer up some of these songs as free downloads. For their constructed singles-looking art alone, you should check them out(I'm especially fond of the Curtom take-off). Anyway, scroll down a bit and you'll come to two songs with a New Years theme.

First up is "Birds At The Feeder" from Kate Jacobs, a delicate number with plenty of metaphor. At core, it's about relationships. I'd call it alt folk, but you might very well conclude it's really straight-up folk. Kate's been writing and singing since the 80s and her most recent album, available throughher web site,Amazonand other on-line retailers, is "Home Game", which features some hook laden Folk Pop and Indie Pop--really a very nice set.

The second New Years freebie comes from Jay Sherman-Godfrey. "New Year's Here" is about the nature of marking time. Jay might best be known for the music made by his band World Famous Blue Jays who have done a couple of soundtrack albums. The one solo effort that shows up on Amazon is"Twoscore", which seems to be (on brief sampling) more of an electric Americana thing.

And, if you can get beyond holiday music, there are certainly plenty of otherfree tracks, including music from Victoria Williams, Peter Holsapple, Freedy Johnson, Susan Cowsill, Laura Cantrell, Beth Orton and Wreckless Eric. Yes, even Jennie Lowe Stearns. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The FREE List

Here we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations.